Published at 26th of December 2025 7:40 am

Chapter 478: Precisely Because We Care For Each Other, There Are Times We End up Missing Each Other.

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Guh!? What are you doing all of a sudden!?

It was a punch from an ordinary person, not particularly trained. It would have been easy to avoid or block, but for some reason, I took it head-on and raised a voice of protest. Then my mother grabbed my shoulders firmly and shouted with tremendous force.

Where did you get this much money!?

Where? I just earned it normally

Dont lie to me! Theres no way a young person like you could earn this much money through legitimate means!

Eh!? Ah

At those words, I once again became aware of the huge discrepancy within myself.

For me, 30 gold coins wasnt a significant amount. Even if I were told to earn it anew in this world, excluding what Ive earned in previous worlds, Im confident I could earn several hundred to several thousand gold coins in half a year by going to a big city and taking on blacksmithing jobs, or conversely, going to the frontier and hunting stronger demonic beasts.

But what about the me from a few days age(my past self)? How could a 20-year-old youngster who felt uneasy even staying at an inn for one silver coin earn this much money? An amount more than 10 times the average annual income of a commoner was absolutely impossible for a mercenary of five years to earn honestly and steadily.

Hey Ed, is someone tricking you? Or are you doing something dangerous!? If you need money, Ill do my best as much as I can so please dont do anything that would shame your father. This is my lifelong request.

Mom

Seeing my mothers face on the verge of tears, the only thing piercing my chest was the pain of cursing my own thoughtlessness. However, I cant take back the money Ive already shown, so I desperately rack my brains to think of a plausible explanation.

But my haste made my thoughts spin in vain, and theres no way a good idea would come up Ah, then, I see!

Its a misunderstanding, Mom. This really isnt strange money. Um look, Tia is an elf, right? By chance, Tia found a rare medicinal herb in the forest, and it just happened to be something some important person was looking for, so we were able to sell it for an incredibly high price.

Is that true?

My mother, averting her gaze from me, asked Tia. Tia immediately understood my intention and nodded vigorously several times.

Y-yes! Its true. You see, Im an elf, so Im good at finding things like that!

But if thats the case, shouldnt this money belong to Tia-san?

Wha!? N-no, thats not it! It sold for such a ridiculous price that even after splitting it with Tia, my share was this much! Right, Tia!

Th-thats right. I have a lot of money too! Look!

Saying this, Tia took out a large amount of gold coins from her bag with a jingling sound. It seems Tia was quite flustered too, but seeing this, my mother at least regained her composure and released her hands from my shoulders.

Thats!? I see, you two have Im sorry, Ed, for hitting you suddenly. Did it hurt?

No, no, this much is nothing. Im trained, you know.

Is that so? But

My mother smiled slightly at my deliberately playful response. But when she returned her gaze to the table, she immediately looked sad. As a result of standing up so vigorously, the plates with the food had been overturned.

The food Im sorry, Tia-chan. And we made it together too.

No, its please dont worry about it. We can make it again.

Thank you. Tia-chan, youre so kind Well then, Ill clean this up, so you two go ahead and rest.

Huh? Ill help?

Me too!

Its alright. This time its mothers fault, so let me do it.

My mother slowly shook her head, refusing our offer. Unable to do anything more for that small back, I fled to my own room.

Ed?

What?

As I collapsed onto the bed, Tia, sitting beside it, gently spoke to me.

Are you angry at your mother?

Dont be stupid. What part of that gives me any reason to be angry?

If I were younger if I were really 20 years old, I might have sulked, thinking I was trying to do something nice for my parents, why am I getting scolded? But now, I can understand from the bottom of my heart that my mothers actions were out of genuine concern for me.

Of course, if I wanted to blame her for suddenly hitting me without asking for a reason, I could, but Id rather pull out my own tongue while laughing than do something like that.

Then why are you making that face?

Thats well, you know. Self-loathing.

My offer to rebuild the house was, of course, out of goodwill. Theres no lie in my desire to provide a comfortable life for my mother. But if asked whether there was absolutely no sense of superiority in I can earn this much money, the answer would surely be different.

I wanted to be praised by my mother, to be thanked. Such a childish desire clouded my judgment, and this is the result, so its unreasonable to tell me not to feel down.

Then, is that why youre not healing that wound?

The cheek where my mother hit me was slightly red and swollen. If I used [Regenerate], I could heal an injury of this level in the blink of an eye, but I didnt feel like doing so. The tingling pain that prompts self-discipline is so dear to me now that I want to embrace it.

Im sorry, Tia. We finally came to my home, and you got caught up in something like this.

You dont need to worry about that. Im the one who said I wanted to come Besides, isnt this also one form of family? Ive had fights with my father and mother many times too.

Is that so? I cant really imagine well, maybe I can a little.

Hmph, whats that supposed to mean? Are you saying it looks like Im always doing things that make my parents angry!?

Thats not what I meant, but you do tend to speak your mind quite clearly, right? So I thought you might get scolded sometimes.

Ugh, well, I cant deny that

Tia stumbled over her words in response to my grinning comment. It seems I hit the nail on the head. Sensing her disadvantage, she immediately leaned towards me and changed the subject.

Geez, never mind that! More importantly, since weve finally come to Eds home, tell me about you when you were a child, or something like that!

When I was a child You know about that dont you, Tia?

Of course. But you remember it dont you, Ed?

Well, I suppose

As a human created by God at the age of 20, I dont have a childhood. But I do remember clearly what kind of childhood I spent. Especially since entering this house, the vague records have become vivid memories.

Then its fine, isnt it? I probably wouldnt have a chance to ask about this otherwise.

True, I probably wouldnt talk about it either Sigh, alright, Ill talk, but dont dig too deep into the details, okay? Even I dont know everything.

Yes, yes. So, what kind of child were you, Ed?

Well, lets see

And so I began to narrate, essentially reading aloud the stage directions in my head. But as I told Tia, it was as if the words gained voice and the scenes gained color, as if they were real. I continued talking until Tia yawned and left the room, and when I was finally alone, I looked around the room again.

My room, huh

Even though I know in my head that this is a place Im visiting for the first time, my heart has already become accustomed to the idea that this is my room where Ive lived since long ago. Feeling a great sense of comfort and a tiny bit of fear about this, I turned off the lights in the room and closed my eyes.

(Tomorrow, Ill apologize to Mom again. And this time, Ill do something nice for her properly, in a wa that will make her happy)

Thinking about such things, my consciousness sank into a warm, mud-like darkness.

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